Rep. Chris Stewart talks public land, taxes and Trump in St. George town hall

Congressman Chris Stewart visits with other politicians and members of the community concerning public lands at Dixie State University Tuesday, March 27, 2018.(Photo: Chris Caldwell / The Spectrum & Daily News)Buy Photo

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart talked tax reform, Russia, public lands and other topics Tuesday during a town hall meeting in St. George, while a challenger in his race for re-election questioned the timing of this visit to southwestern Utah just a month ahead of the GOP’s state convention in April.

Stewart, the presumptive favorite according to political forecasters to win a fourth term in Congress, had a busy day in southern Utah, saying he spent the morning pheasant hunting and shooting an AK-47 before meeting with Republican delegates and speaking at a conference on public lands.

In the evening he hosted a town hall at Desert Hills High School, taking questions on taxes, national monuments and other topics while touting his record on national security and forwarding local projects like the Lake Powell Pipeline and a proposed “northern corridor” highway across the Red Cliffs Desert Reserve.

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Congressman Chris Stewart visits with other politicians and members of the community concerning public lands at Dixie State University Tuesday, March 27, 2018.
Chris Caldwell / The Spectrum & Daily News

“I don’t think there’s one single issue that our staff has worked harder on than that northern corridor,” Stewart said, telling the audience his office is always open to meeting with constituents from the St. George area and the more rural parts of his district, which stretches south and west out of Salt Lake City into the state’s entire southwestern corner.

Several hundred people attended, and Stewart's office broadcast the town hall on Facebook.

Running on his record

Stewart faces a re-election challenge this year from two other Republican candidates, Salt Lake City resident Ken Clark and St. George resident Mary Burkett.

Burkett, a businesswoman, blogger and former vice-chair of the Washington County Republican Party, said she wondered if Stewart’s local availability was tied closely to the election cycle, arguing Wednesday that the town hall and overall visit was scheduled conveniently ahead of the GOP’s April 21 convention.

“It’s very interesting timing, and that’s what an incumbent does,” she said. “That’s his strategy.”

Stewart said during the town hall that he never shies away from constituent scrutiny, saying he visits all parts of his geographically large district regularly, and commenting that he’s conducted more than 60 in-person town halls while in office, which he surmised is “more than the rest of (Utah’s) delegation put together.”

Working with Trump

Stewart defended President Donald Trump at multiple points during the town hall, crediting the president for signing an order to shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, for nominating conservative justices like Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, and for signing the Republican tax cut package that Stewart argues is benefiting the economy and letting Utahns take home more pay.

A member of the House Intelligence Committee, which has faced criticism for its handling of an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, Stewart said has yet to see any evidence Trump actively colluded with the foreign power.

“If you think this president is aligned with Russia, with colluding in some way, if you're lying at night dreaming of that moment, I'm sorry, it's just not coming.”

U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart

"If you think this president is aligned with Russia, with colluding in some way, if you're lying at night dreaming of that moment, I'm sorry, it's just not coming," he said.

Asked about his stance on gun control, Stewart said he would support the 2nd Amendment but recommended rules that could limit firearm access to people with mental health problems and ban "bump stocks," the controversial implement that modifies a semi automatic rifle to allow it to fire at a rate similar to a fully automatic one.

Stewart also touted legislation he's proposed that would create a new national park inside the boundaries of the original Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

The proposal would be part of a larger effort to codify the smaller monument boundaries ordered by Trump, but Stewart argued the attention a new national park would garner could help maintain area tourism businesses. He said the smaller monument boundaries would be a way for other industries to support better jobs in the mostly rural area.

“I don’t think it’s fair to those who would like to have some other kind of economic opportunity there,” he said.